by Bill Eddy
whether he or she wanted to unify or divide the nation. A nation can
go either way. Barack Obama didn’t make an issue of race, so people
didn’t vote based on that. Donald Trump did make an issue of race,
so it “activated” people’s residual racism more than their residual tol-
erance, and it helped him more.249
What gave us the 2016 election, then, was not changes among voters. It was
changes in the candidates…. [w]hat the candidates chose to do and say.250
And Wannabe Kings will do and say anything because they lack
empathy or a conscience. Trump frequently said things such as “illegal
immigrants are treated better in America than many of our vets, ”251
which isn’t true but created a feeling of crisis—a fantasy crisis.
3. And it really was about the media repetition of emotional messages.
“The news media value things that make for ‘good stories’— interesting
characters, novelty, drama, conflict, and controversy—and Trump
supplied those in spades. ”252 He received the most coverage.
5 5 5
Conclusion: Who’s Next?
Joe McCarthy had a history of lying in politics that began by the time he was
in his twenties. He certainly had Targets of Blame and showed no empathy
or remorse in falsely accusing them in public on television. He eventually
had his downfall, but he still had a lot of support. McCarthyism is named
after him.
Richard Nixon also lied a lot. He promoted an illegal scheme to break
into the office of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel
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116 Part II: The Fantasy Crisis Triad Worldwide
during the election of 1972. He also had an enemies list, which was written
down for him by his staff.
Donald Trump has been a good example of an HCP using Fantasy Crisis
Triads to divide voters and win. This appears to be because today’s high-
emotion media, in all its forms, emphasizes faces, voices, and emotional
messages. This ultimately favors high- conflict politicians (and all high-
conflict personalities) who have far less self- restraint and ability to solve
problems in the gray areas of real life.
Yet it seems that elections are no longer about good government, but
about “good stories.” In the all- or- nothing world of heroes and villains,
Trump won.
But who will be next? Will it be someone on the far right or the far left?
In Russia, the far- left Stalin was replaced (with a period of democracy in
between) by a far- right Putin. In Hungary, pro- democracy Orban became
far- right Orban.
Today’s high- emotion media in America has helped create an environ-
ment in which a high- conflict personality can succeed with fantasy crises
when real daily life is actually going okay for most people, including his fol-
lowers. Yes, there are problems to be solved, but they don’t compare to the
problems that a Wannabe King can create in their endless quest for unlim-
ited power.
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9
10 COMMON MISTAKES
WITH HIGH- CONFLICT
POLITICIANS
In the examples in the prior chapters in this book, a minority of enthusi-
astic citizens made the mistake—or are currently making the mistake—of
following Wannabe Kings to their own doom as well as everyone else’s. In
most cases, this minority was only 30 to 40 percent of the adult popula-
tion. The other 60 to 70 percent of the potential electorate either opposed
or came to oppose these HCP Wannabe Kings, but they too made many
mistakes that no one should make in the future.
Mostly, they either believed and followed the Wannabe King, or allowed
themselves to be split into at least three other groups, which allowed these
Wannabe Kings to take power, and then gain more power, until they became
unstoppable. As we have seen, after HCPs are elected and dismantle their
democracies to impose authoritarian rule, it takes outside forces to stop
them. We can no longer afford to let that happen anywhere in the world, so
we must learn from the common mistakes so many have made.
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118 Part II: The Fantasy Crisis Triad Worldwide
Mistake 1: Missing the Warning Signs
In every case in this book, voters missed how dangerous and deceptive
these HCP Wannabe Kings were until it was too late or almost too late.
Some never varied from supporting their narcissistic and/or sociopathic
leaders. In some cases, voters paid with their lives for not realizing that
their endlessly aggressive HCP would turn on them eventually. You
might wonder whether these voters and leaders saw any warning signs
and had any doubts about the HCP early on when they could have voted
against them.
The reality is that most didn’t. They saw individual behaviors in isolation
(a serious insult, a physical assault against someone else, a cruel joke, and so
on) and didn’t recognize that these individual behaviors were warning signs
of patterns of future behavior. When you hitch your wagon to someone as
grandiose, cruel, and lacking in empathy and remorse as these Wannabe
Kings, you’re going to get worse behavior in the future, not better. These
voters naively believed the opposite.
Hitler, Stalin, and Mao routinely killed their closest colleagues to remove
any perceived threats. Putin, Orban, Trump, and others appear to fire their
closest colleagues on a regular basis to remove perceived threats or simply
to show everyone who’s boss. If everyone knew that high- conflict politicians
are always adversarial and endlessly aggressive toward everyone (as you
now know), then they would realize what was coming and that their loyalty
means nothing to a Wannabe King even though the Wannabe King demands
it all along.
I am hoping that this book will provide this general awareness and spe-
cific knowledge. It’s important to know that this is an area of knowledge that
you may not have needed in the past when there were fewer of these per-
sonalities present and they had less ability to impact your life. Now everyone
needs to know these personality patterns and the warning signs.
Mistake 2: Believing in Fantasy Crises
Most of the high- conflict politicians described in this part of the book spent
very little time explaining why their “crisis” was real and needed emergency
action. They just presented it emotionally and quickly moved on to talk
about their alleged villains and how they, the HCPs, were the “heroes.” The
crises became a given, an assumption.
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9: 10 Common Mistakes with High- Conflict Politicians 119
In Germany, Loyalists just accepted that their loss of World War I, the
reparations they had to pay to France, and the shambles of their economy
were crises that could be blamed on a small group (1 percent) of people: Jews.
Stalin and the Soviet government created famines in Russia and Ukraine,
and then blamed them on t
he uncooperative peasants, the successful small
farmers—the kulaks—who had worked hard doing what they thought was
right. Mao created a devastating famine as well and destroyed the adminis-
trative and professional classes in an effort to protect the country from his
own fantasy crises.
Orban and Trump have their immigrant “crises.” Putin has his propaganda
of homosexuals “crisis.” Maduro’s “crisis” was the counter- revolutionaries
who were elected to the legislature among others.
Nowadays, this is where other politicians and the media make some of
their biggest mistakes. They don’t explain to the public why the supposed
crisis is or is not a crisis—and that it might not even be a problem that needs
solving. Instead, they uniformly focus on emotions—how people feel about
the crisis, the villains, and the heroes. Journalists often interview alleged
villains, alleged heroes, and everyday people and then ask how they feel.
And how does that make you feel? they ask. And how do you feel about
what so- and- so said about you- know- who today? And how do you feel about
this politician? Would you still vote for him today? Thank you. No useful
information is provided in these types of conversations.
It’s all about high emotions and high- conflict behavior that grab your
attention. It’s rarely about thoroughly examining the facts and honestly
reporting that many of these alleged crises are actually nonexistent—or are
problems that are already being or can be well- managed or solved.
Mistake 3: Believing in Fantasy Villains
Many people come to believe that the alleged villains really are villains. In
the 1930s in the Soviet Union, the urban- based young revolutionaries went
to the rural peasants in Ukraine to convince them to give up their small plots
of land and join collectivized farms. They were convinced that these farmers
were counterrevolutionaries and the cause of people being at risk of starving
in the cities, when it was actually the Soviet government’s policies that were
causing food shortages.
A more recent example of this is the highly negative views of Hillary
Clinton that were evoked by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential
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120 Part II: The Fantasy Crisis Triad Worldwide
election campaign. Trump said she was the most corrupt politician that
had ever run for president, and he lead his followers in chants (even at the
national Republican Party convention) to “Lock her up!” over her emails.
Through this emotional repetition of such strong language, he gradually
persuaded many people, even people who had decided that they would
never vote for Trump, that Clinton was equally awful, so they would never
vote for her either.
It is also amazing to see how successfully Vladimir Putin ran against
his American villains (Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and US Ambassador
McFaul) in his successful 2012 election bid for a third term as president.
Mistake 4: Believing in the Fantasy Hero
It was and is tempting to want a strongman form of leadership during a
crisis. Narcissists and sociopaths know this, so they start their rise to power
by persuading the nation there’s a crisis that requires them to be the hero. If
a population believes in this fantasy crisis, then they are much more likely
to look for and accept a high- conflict politician as a good choice for leader.
This is the message that Wannabe Kings have promoted through the ages— I
alone can fix this. Many people believe that this is true— We need a strong-
man like this—and that this is the person who should fulfill that role. But
instead, they should recognize this statement as a warning sign.
Appearing strong helps Wannabe Kings gain and keep support from their
followers. This appearance seems to be more important than actually doing
things well. The following was written in May 2018, sixteen months into
Trump’s presidency and five months after he got a tax cut bill through congress:
Why Trump’s approval has gone up, even as his scandals have piled up:
The vast majority of the American public long ago concluded that Donald
Trump is a liar who does not “share their values” or “care about people
like them.” But at the start of his presidency, 79 percent of conservative
Republicans believed that he could “get things done”—by December 2017,
that had fallen to just 60 percent. Once the tax cuts passed, however, con-
servatives’ confidence in Trump’s “git ’er done” abilities spiked back up
into the mid-70s.253
Wannabe Kings know that, above all else, they need to appear strong.
And, as con artists, they are particularly skilled at making themselves into
what their followers are looking for.
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9: 10 Common Mistakes with High- Conflict Politicians 121
Mistake 5: Believing the HCP Has Been Victimized
and Needs to Be Defended
From day one, Wannabe Kings present themselves to their followers as
being victimized by their “villains.” They ask for their followers’ assistance in
attacking these fantasy villains. This is a standard tactic of most narcissists
and sociopaths, even those who have no interest in politics or leadership. It
appears to be a natural trait for them: the HCPs get sympathy from others
and then use it to get assistance in attacking the HCPs’ Targets of Blame.
This tactic works most of the time on the unwary. This is why understand-
ing the traits of narcissists and sociopaths is such necessary knowledge for
everyone in our modern times.
In Turkey, President Erdoğan appears to have traits of an HCP Wan-
nabe King. He has repeatedly emphasized that the European Union is treat-
ing him unfairly and therefore, by extension, treating the citizens of Turkey
unfairly, since the EU is reluctant to accept Turkey as a new member. In
2018, President Trump tried to isolate Erdoğan by imposing economic sanc-
tions and public rebukes in an effort to quickly free a Christian minister who
was being detained there. This tactic ended up helping Erdoğan:
As the Turkish currency swoons, Erdogan has focused domestic anger
instead against the United States and portrayed his country as the victim
of intentional sabotage—shifting attention from economic problems that
analysts said his government has failed for years to adequately address.254
So far, being attacked by Trump appears to have brought Erdoğan sym-
pathy, not only with his own country’s citizens, but with other leaders. But as
the reality of economic problems increases, at some point his followers may
realize that he is a fantasy hero and not a victim—and not the wonderful
leader they thought he was.
Mistake 6: Believing the HCP Can Be Controlled
This common mistake is made with all narcissists and sociopaths. In the
case of Adolf Hitler, many of those in business and government saw him as
relatively harmless and controllable.
There were those who met Hitler [in the 1920s] and recognized he rep-
resented almost a p
rimeval force and possessed an uncanny ability to tap
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122 Part II: The Fantasy Crisis Triad Worldwide
into the emotions and anger of the German people, and those who dis-
missed him as a clownish figure who would vanish from the political scene
as quickly as he had appeared.255
One banker with a history of working with the democratic government in
the 1920s, Hjalmar Schacht, told an American reporter, Edgar Mowrer, that
he was going to be meeting with Hitler in 1932:
Three weeks later, Mower met Schacht again, and asked him how his
conversation went with the Nazi leader. “Brilliantly,” the German banker
replied. “I’ve got that man right in my pocket. ”256
How wrong they were.
Likewise, when Donald Trump became president, many who elected
him said that he would act “more presidential” once he got into office. He
even made fun of this idea at rallies after being elected by pretending to be a
serious and staid politician and then asking the crowd “You don’t really want
me to be like that, do you?” And of course, the crowd would respond with a
resounding “No!”
Such actions reinforce the idea that now the number one goal of a presi-
dent is to be entertaining. The idea that politics has completely merged with
entertainment is continually reinforced by Trump’s public behavior and the
media’s response to it. Yet few see this as a predictable part of the endlessly
aggressive pattern of a Wannabe King. Power makes them more aggressive,
not less.
Mistake 7: Treating Moderate Opponents
as Enemies
In all of the cases described in this part, opposition to the high- conflict pol-
itician is divided. In the case of Hitler, the Social Democrats and other par-
ties in Berlin were constantly squabbling and he took great advantage of
that. Both the Nazis and the Communists attacked the Social Democrats
and weakened them significantly. If the opposition had somehow joined
together with the Moderates, rather than attacking them and each other,
they could have stopped him.
In the 2016 primaries for the presidential election in the United States,
the progressive wing of the Democratic Party attacked the moderate can-
didate, Hillary Clinton. And the Democratic Party apparatus apparently
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